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Tanja Nijmeijer: I planted bombs

Published on:

Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 21:00

Tanja Nijmeijer, the Dutch woman who joined Colombia's FARC rebels, admits she has planted bombs. She reveals this in the documentary film Tanja and Her Story by Colombian journalist Jorge Enrique Botero.

"Working with the FARC meant planting bombs," says Nijmeijer. "I always needed to make sure no civilians were in the area. We had to do most of our work at night. I have set buses and businesses on fire."

This new confession means Nijmeijer has lost her chance of being granted an amnesty; the Colombian ambassador to the Netherlands says her crimes are just too serious.

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As Tanja says in the documentary, she kept a diary in the jungle. In this entry - from June 2010 - she describes how the Colombian military attacked the camp.

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Tanja also gives an impression of her daily activities with the FARC. These include digging trenches, over and over again.

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In Jorge Enrique Botero's documentary Tanja Nijmeijer speaks about the guerrilla training course she attended; training which pushed her to the brink of despair.

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Following the video in which Tanja sings Don't Cry for Me Argentina, there are also images of her singing Venus, a popular song - first released in 1969 - by Dutch band Shocking Blue.

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Archive

This article is part of the RNW archive. RNW is the former Radio Netherlands Worldwide or Wereldomroep, which was founded as the Dutch international public broadcaster in 1947. In 2011 Dutch government’s decided to cut funding and shift RNW in 2013 from the ministry of Education, Culture and Science to the ministry of Foreign Affairs. More information about RNW’s current activities can be found at http://www.rnw.org/about-rnw